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Plain and Fancy

Music gives soul to universe, wings to mind, flight to imagination, charm to sadness, and life to everything.

Plato

Friday, August 31, 2012

Rodriguez - Cold Fact (1970 us, superb folk psych, 2008 remaster edition)




Dipped sweetly in the psychedelia of the sixties, this the first album from a mysteriously unknown artist, mingles simply folk guitar with astonishing lyrics about drugs, depression and inner city blues. Rodriguez’s distinct nasal voice ambles through a dozen simple tunes addressing the turbulent backdrop of America in the sixties and does so with such impressionable beauty that it has catapulted him into cult status in many far flung corners of the globe. Such is the demand, that both Cold Fact, and the second album Coming From Reality (re-released in 1976, in South Africa only, as After The Fact), have now been remastered on CD format, some 20 years later.

For many, this album is one magnificent trip, lost in the haze of hippiness, and indeed the album is laced with narcotic references, but as far as talent goes, Cold Fact is a remarkable album perfect for idealists and dreamers. The obsessive I wonder, perhaps the best known of the album’s tracks, is a simple tune that mirrors the type of questions you’ve always wanted to ask of certain people and never had the courage, but it is the album’s ultra-trippy opening number, Sugar Man which really lends the album and air of intrigue. Others such as Crucify Your Mind, Jane S. Piddy and Forget It are both poignant and subtly beautiful.

However, it is the album as a whole, it’s poetic lyrics and the bohemian fueled mystery surrounding it that makes it so appealing to several generations, even years after the artist signed off with the words thanks for your time, then you can thank me for mine and after that’s said, forget it.

This album, in short, eventually becomes part of your lifestyle.
by Andrew Bond


Tracks
1. Sugar Man - 3.45
2. Only Good For Conversation - 2.25
3. Crucify Your Mind - 2.30
4. This Is Not A Song, It's an Outburst: Or, The Establishment Blues - 2.05
5. Hate Street Dialogue - 2.30
6. Forget It - 1.50
7. Inner City Blues - 3.23
8. I Wonder - 2.30
9. Like Janis - 2.32
10.Gommorah - A Nursery Rhyme - 2.20
11.Rich Folks Hoax - 3.05
12.Jane S. Piddy - 2:54
All songs by Sixto Rodriguez

Musicians
*Rodriguez - Vocals, acoustic guitar
*Dennis Coffey - Electric guitar
*Mike Theodore - Keyboards
*Andrew Smith - Drums
*Bob Pangborn - Percussion
*Bob Babbitt - Bass
*Detroit Symphony (Leader Gordon Staples) - Strings
*Carl Reatz - Horns - 3 Trombones, Baritone Sax
*Childrens Choir on "Gommorah"
*- The children's choir were family of Joyce [Vincent] and Telma [Hopkins] (who later became Dawn)

1971  Rodriguez - Coming From Reality (2009 remaster)

Free Text
the Free Text

40 comments:

  1. Thanks Mario for this great post. Cold Fact have been acclaimed as an excellent album. Now I have it thanks to you.

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  2. MASTERPIECE!!
    Σε ευχαριστώ πολύ.

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  3. I never heard...until now...nice surprise for me,sounds real cool,this is my alley...Thanks Mario

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  4. Never heard about, but must be good reason for remaster edition. Thanks you introduced me Cold Fact.

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  5. I recently heard some Rodriguez being played in the very cool used CD & vinyl store a block from here... and was very struck by it, so I'm glad for the chance to listen to a Rodriguez album all the way through.

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  6. Great album, I hope you post the second album, Coming from Reality (1971). Big thanks Marios! :)

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  7. Nice to see Rodriguez on here..just wrote about his debut too. Have a good one!

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  8. Thanks for sharing this, however the Depositfile download is asking for a password? Can you please tell me what the password is? I can't see it on your site. THANKS!

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  9. OK, ignore me,. I figured it out. Thanks again ;-)

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  10. Thank you very much for sharing.

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  11. Muchas gracias por el aporte

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  12. Damn, can't believe that he wasn't successful with this material :/

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  13. God bless you guys!
    Thanks

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  14. Thank you for this album. I've seen the documentairy of him. Good film.Good person.

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  15. me parece maravillosa la musica de rodriguez , muy buena

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  16. Excuse me... how can I find the download link???

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  17. Magnífico músico y poeta, deseo descargar el álbum.

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  18. Thank You Very Much!!!

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  19. Genial este disco!! Cómo descargo?

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  20. Unknown, seguir las palabras "Free Text"

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  21. Don't read this. Go and download this at once. You'll play through it twice, I promise.

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  22. certainly not as mysterious as people seem to think. He toured Australia circa 1980!!!! & made a live album there.....all before the South Africans thought he was imaginary. They dont mention that in their film? makes them seem more competent in finding him???? So theres 3 albums a film in Amazon & he plays live- hardly a man of mystery. Just another talented guy who luckily got re-discovered. Loose the cult tale!

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  23. Ευχαριστώ πολύ!!

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  24. Come on 'bk' get real, he was missing in action for several decades and no one knew where he was or what he was doing for years even before the interest from Australia and subsequent tours there in 1979 and 1981, with the very limited release live album only coming out in Australia and New Zealand to promote the 1981 tour. As is clear from the film which was his first public appearance since the early eighties Rodriguez himself didn't even know there was still any recognition around the world, and he hardly ever played live even in his hometown Detroit for all those years.

    Granted the documentary film should have mentioned the Australian angle, but if his story isn't a cult tale then I don't know what is.

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